Artist nails his genitals to Red Square

MOSCOW AP – A Russian performance artist nailed his genitals to the ground in Moscow’s Red Square to protest Russia’s “police state” as the country marked national police day.

A video shows naked Pyotr Pavlensky sitting on Russia’s most famous square just outside the Kremlin on Sunday afternoon after nailing himself to the ground. Police first took him to the hospital and then into custody.

Interfax news agency said that a court dismissed charges of “petty hooliganism” and released him Monday.

Pavlensky, who has long been known for his self-mutilating stunts, told Dozhd television he wanted to warn that “we are on the threshold of becoming a police state.”

In summer 2012, Pavlensky sewed his mouth closed to protest the imprisonment of three members of the punk rock band Pussy Riot.